At 10:36 PM 6/20/99 -0800, you wrote:
>Kent Crispin wrote:
>
>>ICANN doesn't have a power to tax. It has the power to charge a
>>fee, just like NSI does.
>>
>What are the legal definitions of a tax and a fee? It seems that the two
>terms are being used here interchangeably to suit individual arguments.
>There must be some objective criteria that applies to each.
An excellent question, Ellen!! One simple answer is that they are
whatever the relevant statute says they are. And in fact, that is
often the case. In my original letter I noted a case in which that
was not true: the "fee" imposed for handicapped parking permits
was deemed by the courts to be a tax, but that was only for the
special purpose of recogizing the intent of Congress: people who
are handicapped cannot be charged extra for the extra need, and
calling the charge a "fee" does not let it slip by.
A more general answer is based upon the destination of the funds:
taxes go into the general budget, but fees are directed into the
agency that collected them, as a way of cost recovery. You pay
a fee to go to a park; that money provides maintenance to the
park. I pay patent application fees for my clients; those funds
run the USPTO. (Incidentally, those fees have mostly all gone
down recently: Congress mandated that the USPTO be self-
supporting, and the USPTO had to raise fees to stay alive since
the Congress Critters started dipping into the funds received
for pork barrel purposes; evidently the pork stopped because
the fees were largely reduced. Sometimes government works.)
But back to the story: fees are often referred to as user fees,
which suggest an immediate quid pro quo, and, at least
theoretically, that's the difference between the meanings of
taxes and fees.
I don't remember any clarion cries of "No fees without
representation" -- if you don't want to pay the fee, don't
use the service. And so much for Revolutionary War
hyperbole.
(Kent: I'm so glad that you've come around to my way of
thinking. HAHAHAHAHA!) :-)
Bill Lovell
>
>
>Ellen Rony Co-author
>The Domain Name Handbook ____ http://www.domainhandbook.com
>======================== ^..^ )6 =============================
>ISBN 0879305150 (oo) -^-- +1 (415) 435-5010
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] W W Tiburon, CA
> Dot com is the Pig Latin of the Information Age.
